The Book that Inspired my Dreams

The Curve of Time
By M. Wylie Blanchet

My father gave me this book when I was just a little girl. I found it then, just as I do now, to be such an incredible true story of a woman out on the sea. It certainly ended up being a major inspiration for me and a book I have read dozens of times throughout my life so far.

It's a memoir written by a woman who lost her husband, and subsequently took their five children out on their 25 foot cruiser, The Caprice during a time when most women didn't do such things. During the 1920's and the 1930's, Wylie explored the waters of British Columbia ever summer for fifteen years with her five growing children in tow. The book is written as if it's one summer of their journeys, and was published by the authoress when she was in her 70's in 1961. At times, she was almost chasing on the heels of many of the same areas that Emily Carr had visited just a decade before her adventures. Often they would follow the trail of Captain George Vancouver travelling all around the west coast of Vancouver Island and as far up the Inside Passage as Cape Caution.

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During the school year, they lived in their home which overlooked the water in North Sannich on Vancouver Island.  She homeschooled her children her entire life, however by the end of the book I found myself dying to know more about her life, and the lives of her children, past the book's pages. 

One of my life's dreams is to visit the inlets and fjords she explored and show my children the same sights. The ones that my Father shared with me when I was young.  She bumped into wildlife, was visited by pods of orcas, stumbled upon bays seldom ever visited, showered in waterfalls and did it all with her children in tow calling a mere 25 feet of boat, home. What an amazing dream of mine, to do the same.

Without a spec of modern technology, Wylie chugged through any kind of water, raising her five children by herself. She was capable and trained not because she took some course or reached a certain certification. She learned by doing. Mechanical engineer, Captain, master navigator, weather woman and above all, nurturer and teacher. Working only from the charts available, Wylie handled it all. Such an inspiration to me.

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Her children grew up naturally. Exploring the wilderness with her children, they fished, crabbed, explored beaches seldom ever visited, picked berries and handled all the mundane tasks of life as well. I would have loved to have met her. I think of her often. Especially every time I'm working on one of my own boats, getting them ready in my mind to handle anything the sea can throw at us. She wrote The Curve of Time when she was in her 70's in 1961. She enjoyed her story getting out there, and lived long enough to see it. 

Another one of my heroines, Wylie Blanchet and her little Caprice.